


empty space

by ghostvinyls (jebbyfish)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday, F/M, Fluff, HBD PIDGE MY ANGEL MY BABY MY CINNAMON APPLE, mutual crush, this is soft fluff dsfgfds ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 18:53:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10542465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jebbyfish/pseuds/ghostvinyls
Summary: “Shh! Don’t say it so loud. You know what’ll happen if Lance hears the ‘b’ word.” Pidge looked at her friend in seriousness, her eyes narrowing as she enunciated the end of her sentence. Hunk’s brow furrowed at her.“You’re so weird.” Was all he said.(happy bday pidge!! this is a day-ish late but i couldn't resist some Soft Plance one shot for da bday girl. warning for bad jokes. implied mutual-crush, hehe. OK L8R i can't believe i uploaded this w a poor joke summary before adding my real one rip sorry every1)





	

“Is pancakes really all you want for your birthday?” Hunk had asked, measuring the ingredients carefully with the kitchen supplies the castle ship offered. He missed proper measuring cups, if he was honest.

 _“Shh!_ Don’t say it so loud. You know what’ll happen if Lance hears the _‘b’ word.”_ Pidge looked at her friend in seriousness, her eyes narrowing as she enunciated the end of her sentence. Hunk’s brow furrowed at her.

“You’re so weird.” Was all he said, immediately turning to pour the supposed-flour into the bowl. “Besides, he’s not so bad.”

“Right. Remember your... b-word?”

“The paper hats were _cute,_ Pidge.”

“And _Shiro’s?”_

“Okay, the song was unnecessary but hey! Still cute.” Hunk grinned at her as he mixed the probably-pancakes in his bowl. “Come on, Pidge. Lance is just trying to be a good friend. Hard to have a, uh, _b-word_ with so little people to celebrate.”

She let out a groan. “I know he’s got sincere intentions. But… it’s too embarrassing.”

“Ooh,” he was grinning wider. “You’re embarrassed?”

“Yes! I am! Nobody should care how old I get! Not until I get arthritis or--or grey hair or straight up _die_ of old age.”

“Oh. I thought you were embarrassed because of the idea of Lance paying attention to you for a day.”

She ignored the flush in her cheeks. “The bigger picture, Hunk.”

“Right. Bigger picture,” he raised the spoon from the bowl, watching the oddly colorful mixture drizzle back into it. “Still too wet.”

Pidge leaned back from the counter, furrowing her brows. “Besides, it’s not like I’m turning anything special.”

“Seventeen _is_ special. You’re--”

“Don’t say it.”

_“Dancing queen.”_

“I hate you.”

 

-

 

“Okay. How’s this?” Lance slid the paper across to Keith, who gave him a tired look as he did so.

“How’s what?”

“My card. Is it funny enough?”

Keith glanced at the paper for barely a second. “You spelled ‘birthday’ wrong.”

“No, no. See, it’s a pun. Cause her name’s Pidge. Like a pigeon, you know, a bird and… I am not explaining a pun to you this early in the morning.”

Keith rolled his eyes, sliding the paper back to the blue paladin. “I didn’t even know it was Pidge’s birthday.”

“She likes to keep it underwraps. I bet she thinks I still don’t know when it is.”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Nah, but you can guess who did.”

“Hunk.”

“By accident, of course, the big doof-- oh shoot! Do you think we have confetti or glitter around here?”

“I’m too scared to ask why you need ‘em.”

“My finishing touch. An envelope full of glitter,” Lance assured the other, folding the piece of paper in half. “The ultimate congrats-on-getting-older prank.”

“You’re so weird.”

“Weird shmeird. I still don’t have a gift idea.”

“What? No big surprise party tonight?”

“Nah. I, uh,” Lance paused for a second, averting his gaze from Keith back to the card in his hands. “I don’t wanna freak her out.”

“That’s surprisingly sweet of you.”

“Hey! I am totally sweet. One hundred percent made of sugar.”

A silence settled between the two paladins, one glancing down at the card in his fingers, the other kicking his feet up on the dining room table.

“Any ideas yet?” Lance quipped. Keith shrugged back at him.

“Dunno. I think the card’s enough. Sometimes you don’t need to go all out to show people you appreciate them.”

“Yeah, but this is Pidge. I think she deserves a _little_ more than just a card.”

“Okay. So what exactly do you plan on giving her? We’re on a ship in the middle of space.”

Lance paused for a moment, considering Keith’s words, the beginning of a lightbulb flickering on in his head. The idea was ambitious. And he didn’t have a lot of luck on his side. But _still._

He sat up straighter, grinning at his frenemy.

“You just gave me an awesome idea.”

 

-

 

There was an envelope taped to her door.

Pidge looked around the hall, unsure what to make of the envelope, balancing a plate of pancakes in one hand. She tugged it off the door, prompting it to slide open and grant her entrance. The plate stacked on top of already haphazardly stacked books. She flopped into the mattress, holding the plain white envelope between lithe, calloused fingers.

If this was Hunk’s idea of a surprise gift, then surprise he did achieve.

She tore into the envelope.

 

_Happy Bird-day, Pidge!_

 

Pidge let out a groan at the pun on the front of the card. She opened it carefully, almost reluctant to receive another barrage of bad puns.

 

 _Your_ _real_ _birthday present’s out on the observation deck. Sorry to tell you like this. Come out ASAP._

 

_XOXO your biggest fan,_

_Lance_

 

Her fists tightened around the paper in her hands.

_Lance._

She didn’t know how he found out, nor did she really care. At the moment, her mind was moving at a hundred miles per hour.

On one hand, she was annoyed and worried it’d be a surprise party.

On the other, she was sort of grateful Lance knew. As if a tiny part of her really did want him to find out and really did want his attention, even for just a day.

_Ew._

She read over the handwritten card again, admiring the effortless loops of his ‘y’s and ‘l’s. He always did have nice handwriting.

Pidge stood up quicker, smoothing her hair down a bit, looking longingly to the plate of pancakes at the top of her book pile.

She can share with him, she figured.

Besides, she shouldn’t keep him waiting.

And off she went, pancakes in hand again, ready to confront Lance McClain on the observation deck. Her mind began to wander.

What, exactly, would party-loving Lance have in store for her birthday? She hated surprise parties. Surprises weren’t her favorite thing, and Lance had experience with this every time he thought it’d be funny to sneak up on her. Paper hats? She might be able to handle those.

She thought back to the horrendous birthday song he serenaded Shiro with.

Pidge most definitely could not handle that.

“Ah, I thought you were gonna blow me off.”

Pidge’s gaze fell to the boy, who was in the middle of pacing around the deck. He was grinning at her.

There wasn’t a sign of a party in sight.

Pidge shook her head, carefully making her way towards him, eyeing suspiciously around the space for any sign of the other five occupants onboard-- not counting the mice. “Thought about it, but figured you’d annoy me forever if I didn’t show up.”

 _“Aww._ Also, what’s up with the purple hotcakes?”

“Pancakes.”

“Flapjacks.”

_“Flopovers.”_

“You made that one up.”

She let out a snort, weighing the plate in her hands. “I asked Hunk for them. Thought you’d uh, want to share?”

Lance ignored the skip of his heartbeat, grinning at the girl. “I’ll never turn down free food.”

“So why’d you want me to come up here anyway? Oh yeah, thanks for the card. Shitty pun.”

“Awesome pun. Also, this is my gift to you.”

He spread out his arms, gesturing towards the windows, to the wide open space beyond the ship. Pidge cocked her head to one side.

“We literally see space every day. There is not a moment we aren’t surrounded by space. ‘Course, unless you somehow convinced Allura to let me have the observation deck--”

“Oh my god. Stop rambling. You’re making me nervous.”

“I’m making you nervous?”

“Yeah. The whole logic thing you like to pull. Cute, but right now, Pidge, I want you to just look outside.”

She strode past him, handing off the pancakes to the older boy, looking out into the great beyond. The final frontier. The vast emptiness of, well, space. Stars, twinkling in the distance. A planet, directly below them.

“I’m not following. Should I be, uh, looking for something on the planet?”

“Patience, grasshopper.”

The two waited, side by side, staring down towards the darkness, the twinkling stars, the unseemingly normal planet that rolled in its day cycle below them. Pidge bounced on the balls of her feet, impatience rocking her body.

“What are we waiting for?”

“Shush. You’ll miss it.”

And it took a moment. And Pidge wasn’t sure if she’d be able to miss it.

It came in slow waves, almost too subtle for Pidge to notice. But then, of course, the waves grew larger, and a glowing ring seemed to rise from the planet itself; Pidge, however, knew that wasn’t how it happened. It pulsed and changed and glowed, green and blue and purple, reaching high enough almost to kiss the windows of the castleship.

Her mouth formed a small ‘o’ and any words she had left for the blue paladin died in her throat. Her fingers touched the glass, and Pidge pressed herself as close as she could, eyes widening at the spectacle below them.

“I-it’s a…” She stood up straighter, eyes flicking to Lance, surprised to find he had been watching her and not the show below them. A blush creeped over his face, clear as day despite the blues and greens glowing across his features.

“Yeah. Aurora. Everyone kind of dreams of seeing these, right? ‘Course, not everyone gets a chance to see them from space.”

She nodded, eyes flicking back to the aurora below them, a loss for words, save for factoids. “Auroras are caused when atoms in the atmosphere of a planet get excited by sun-charged particles. They aren’t rare occurrences, for one, but… but not everyone gets the chance to see them.”

“Sweet facts and all, but this isn’t science class. It’s your birthday.”

“Right. My birthday.” She paused, and Pidge forced herself to look away from the aurora, back to Lance, whose gaze was out the window. “You… you found an aurora for me? For my birthday?”

And he flushed again, avoiding her gaze. “I mean, it wasn’t that hard to find a planet that experiences them. The hard part was convincing Allura and Coran that it was super important to turn the ship in the right direction.”

“But you still…” And her words died again, her gaze falling back outside to the planet below. “This is… the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

Lance stood up straighter at the confession, eyeing the green paladin. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve had good birthdays. But, uh, this might be my favorite one.”

A grin formed across his features. “I’m relieved to hear that.”

“Why? Thought you’d be more gloaty.”

“Well, I was super nervous this wasn’t gonna work out and we’d still be standing here, staring at nothing.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing.”

“You seriously wouldn’t mind staring into empty space with me for like, twenty minutes?”

“Well,” and it was a subtle gesture, a gesture neither paladin seemed to mind or notice when her fingers went to grasp his. “It’s not completely empty.”

A silence passed between them as the aurora pulsed on, and almost as gently as it woke, came the time for the waves of glowing lights to settle back into the planet’s atmosphere.

And they never let go of each other's hands.


End file.
